Whangārei teen Sascha Peck stuns thousands with harp performance at Spark Arena

Whangārei teen Sascha Peck wowed a crowd of 6000 people in Auckland's Spark Arena on a harp handmade by her dad.

The 15-year-old Whangārei Girls High School student's journey to the stage was thanks to her music teacher, Nick Grew, who handpicked her to perform first at a University of Auckland graduation in Whangārei.

From there the University immediately asked her back to perform at their large-scale spring graduation for all faculties in Auckland.

Before the August 2 event, Peck's largest audience consisted of around 250 people at a graduation in Whangārei's Capitaine Bougainville Theatre two months ago.

As she walked out onto the Spark Arena stage, she kept her head down except for a cursory glance at the audience.

"I looked up once and I went 'no' and put my head back down," Peck said. "I was a bit nervous about performing but not too nervous."

Sascha Peck during her performance at Spark Arena on August 2. Photo / University of Auckland

Lessons over Skype with her Kerikeri-based harp teacher helped her confidence for the big moment.

"I wasn't worried at all about messing up. I'd played the piece about 100 times perfectly."

Her family, however, were another story.

"They were 10 times more nervous than I was," Peck said.

After she plucked the final note of her performance she faced the audience.

"I looked up and was like, holy moly."

The crowd was staring back at her with a mix of smiles and stunned expressions.

Peck was introduced to the harp as a 5-year-old by her dad, who was keen for his daughter to follow in her older sister's footsteps and learn the craft of a unique instrument.

Whangārei Girls High School student Sascha Peck and the harp her father crafted. Photo / Tania Whyte

The teen always had a knack for the harp as she met the challenge of her hands carrying out completely different tasks at the same time with innate ease - although learning a piece can still take up to five months.

An unexpected twist was the sudden inclination of her dad - an accountant - to craft harps for his two daughters from scratch.

"When he made the first one he searched up on YouTube how to make it," Peck said.

And four months later he held a miniature harp in his hands that would set his daughter on a passionate path leading to Spark Arena.

"We've got heaps of harps now," Peck said. "He just wanted to make more and more."

She said her dad was reluctant to sell any of the 12 to 14 stashed at home.

Peck wants to keep the harp as a hobby rather than a career ambition as she wants the time to continue as a volunteer surf lifeguard at Waipū Cove and keep playing in her school's XI hockey team and tennis at Mairtown.